4 Places to Find Free Images for Your Blog

Do you often find yourself struggling to find good photos for you blog posts? I know I do.

It’s tempting to snag an image from a Google search, but in most cases this is questionable conduct. You could get in trouble for doing that.

Even with all of the tools I’ve listed below, finding just the right free image can take a lot of searching. However, it’s always better to have more tools at your disposal than not.

Here are four places to find images you can use on your blog.

1. freeimages

I have been using freeimages for quite a while now. Granted, many of the photos there have been used rather extensively by other designers, bloggers and website owners. That’s just the price you pay for using this relatively hassle-free website. Occasionally you do find some really good images too.

As with most other sites, there are some usage restrictions on the photos at stock.xchng (always observe applicable guidelines). Some users require you to notify them if you’re going to use their pictures as well. Even so, you don’t usually need to credit the users on your site, which is convenient.

2. Pixabay

After using stock.xchng rather extensively, I was glad to have found Pixabay, another site that has a substantial database of photos. However, they don’t have good photos for absolutely everything; it really depends on the subject matter. The upside is that you can find unique images on Pixabay you won’t find elsewhere.

Like stock.xchng, attributing users from Pixabay isn’t usually necessary. This makes it another straightforward tool for finding photos you can use right away.

3. Photo Pin

While Flickr is not a bad place to go looking for photos, I find their interface a little clunky and annoying. Enter Photo Pin. It’s a great tool for finding just the creative commons photos from Flickr.

The one catch is that, like Flickr, you have to display attribution for the photos. I still prefer having to do that over spending hours searching others sites for usable images though.

4. Unsplash

This one is a little different from the others. Unsplash offers random high-resolution photos that you can “do whatever you want” with. The only catch is that these photos are not searchable by subject matter or keyword tags. If you’re looking for high-quality artistic photos (and you don’t mind being a little abstract), this is a good place to look.

Bonus: Take Your Own

Even with all of the sites I’ve listed in this post, you may not be able to find an image that you’re satisfied with. At times, the best solution is simply to take your own photos.

“But I don’t have a DSLR camera”, you might say.

No problem. Simply download an app like Pro HDR Camera on your smartphone and start experimenting with it. Before long, you’ll be able to take some nice artistic pictures of your own.

If I had enough time in my day, I would probably go with this option more often. However, I can’t always go around taking photos. For those who can make it a part of their routine, this is a fantastic alternative.

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David Andrew Wiebe has built an extensive career in songwriting, live performance, recording, session playing, production work, investing, and music instruction. In addition to helping musicians unlock their full potential, he also continues to maintain a performance schedule with Long Jon Lev and Adrenalize. If you'd like to be notified whenever the blog is updated, click here to subscribe.